Comment on Grandma is on her own
deranger@sh.itjust.works 2 days agoAs someone who’s dealing with the estate process right now, I don’t think anyone inherits debt.
That is arguing semantics. When people inherit things it is their understanding that it is theirs. If my grandma left me the house but owed 1 million in unpaid debt, you effectively inherit the debt. Regardless of the fact that you could opt out of inheriting it.
People often go into personal debt to retain inheritance.
On a separate note inheritance/estate tax is robbery by the federal government.
That is incorrect. If your grandmother left you the house, as in she put your name on the deed as transfer on death, it is not part of the estate and you would get it outright. It would not be affected by the debt. It is not part of the estate.
All taxation is theft.
Inheritance/estate tax is one of the more ethical ones, though.
Not really, but there’s not much being left for the children of boomers to inherit.
Coincidentally I hear the opposite, boomer kids stand to inherit quite a bit. Anecdotally this seems true; granted I am an only child.
My father is likely to leave me with a few hundred thousand of his retirement account (he doesn’t know what to spend it on, his union pension is more than enough for his needs) and I’ll inherit both his house as well as my grandmothers house, which is now my uncle’s house. My mom’s house will be sold and split between my half brother and my cousin who my mother raised.
Bush’s war debts.
Child of a boomer here and honestly, the socioeconomic strata i grew up in? I never expected anything
It’s actually expensive, and the property is taxed as usual. If you don’t monetise the area you’re going to lose. It depends.
What are you talking about?
I was under the impression that was not the case. If the estate has no money to pay out, the collectors are gonna come knocking, no?
I don’t believe so. I was explicitly told by my lawyer not to pay any estate debts with my own money.
They can come knocking all they want, but you are not legally required as an heir to pay that debt. Surely there are a few exceptions like mortgage payments (if u wanna keep the house), but personal debts like credit cards? Not your problem.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 day ago
but if theres enough debt the other assets go towards that rather than the inheritors.
deranger@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
That’s literally what I just said. Debts are paid out of the estate.
Dasus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m not sure the whole “debts aren’t inherited” part applies everywhere.
Certainly does in my country. Although like in the rare instance there was something you absolutely wanted to inherit, but there was also a mountain of debt, you couldn’t decide to inherit without also taking on the debt. Even if that inherited thing was literally worthless and would not yield anything when sold.
Although such an object would probably be able to gifted, but like technically, that’s how it’d go.
But here’s the bit that actually made me write my comment:
youtube.com/shorts/_pkNndF6O_M
Idk how it works where that guy lives, but it’s clip from an American standup, talking about inherited debt. Might just be made up, obviously, but according to this article more than half the states still have “filial responsibility” laws.
deranger@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
If you read that article, you will see the exact two examples that I used for when you would be responsible for the debt. The third that I didn’t list was mishandling the estate as the executor.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 day ago
My point was that if you have too much debt your inheritors aren’t going to get anything when you die so just saying that debt doesn’t get passed on like it’s nothing is kind of disingenuous. I guess if you don’t care about leaving anything to your family you don’t need to worry about it but personally I want mine to get as much as possible.
deranger@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
It’s not disingenuous in the slightest. Debt does not get passed on, full stop. You are not responsible for the debts of your parents except for a few niche scenarios. Debts and assets are separate things.
doingthestuff@lemy.lol 19 hours ago
Smart and rich people get around inheritance taxes by systematically giving wealth to their families over time while they are still living.